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A new David Bowie box set released late last week includes a complete (and remastered) version of his long-lost album, The Gouster. Bowie originally recorded the album in 1974, but eventually shelved the project. Reworked versions of "Somebody Up There Likes Me" and "Can You Hear Me" wound up on 1975's Young Americans. Other tracks, like "It's Gonna Be Me" and "John, I'm Only Dancing (Again)," trickled out in various forms in the years that followed. But this is the first time Gouster's full track list is available to hear as it was originally intended.

If you've seen Bonnie Raitt live, chances are you saw Jon Cleary at the piano. Cleary's New Orleans-style playing has been a part of Raitt's show for years, and he continues to be a beloved fixture of the Crescent City.

Brent Cobb is from rural Georgia, but he's been paying the bills as a songwriter in Nashville for the last 10 years. These days, he's an overnight sensation with a major-label debut produced by his cousin Dave Cobb.

Kyle Craft's music encompasses a diverse set of influences. Originally from Shreveport, La., his voice carries southern cadences and his songs revolve around distinct characters and situations that could only be from that town by the Mississippi. But you also hear the influences of David Bowie, under whose spell Craft fell at a young age, and of Craft's adopted hometown of Portland, Ore.

They came, they measured, and they returned to perform a show like no other. It was the great NPR Tiny Desk Takeover by Blue Man Group.

If you've not seen this performance ensemble and their production in New York, Las Vegas, Orlando, Boston, Chicago or Berlin, then you've missed a night of magical fun. These Blue Men may never say a word, but the performances make for poignant looks at who we are as humans. They also make unusual music on instruments of their own design.

The political endorsement song is a strange beast. It's something more than just a campaign anthem — the kind of track that pumps up rally audiences before a candidate's entrance onstage. Instead, this kind of tune is an odd hybrid: part commercial jingle, part aspirational anthem and, with nearly no exceptions, a soon-forgotten novelty. (One outlier: the sturdy Whig song "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too" from the 1840 presidential campaign, which was most recently resurrected by They Might Be Giants in 2004.)

The large instrumental band Snarky Puppy, which just won its second Grammy Award, is hard to pin down to one place. Its core is now in New York, but its members have toured and recorded all over the world, and their spiritual home is still Dallas, Texas. It's where they'd take in gospel performances in area churches; it's near where they initially met at music school at the University of North Texas in Denton. As bassist and bandleader Michael League explains, you can hear all those collisions in the pocket of their complex and beyond-category grooves.

Join Fiona Ritchie to celebrate the season by exploring festive songs, carols and dances from traditions old and new. In this week's episode of The Thistle & Shamrock, hear music performed by Emily Smith, Maggie Sansone, Ashley Davis & John Doyle, Jennifer Cutting's Ocean Orchestra and more.

Hear some of the classic tracks that form the bedrock of the playlist for ThistleRadio, The Thistle & Shamrock's popular 'round-the-clock Celtic roots-music channel. The list includes music by Mary Jane Lamond and Wendy MacIsaac, Kris Drever, Dervish and Enya, among others.

Drawing meaning, guidance and solace from the sun, moon and stars, this week's selections on The Thistle & Shamrock look to the Northern and Western skies. Hear music from Liz Carroll and John Doyle, Kate Rusby, Ceilidh Minogue and more.

This week, The Thistle & Shamrock host Fiona Ritchie presents acoustic roots music from Wales with Cerys Matthews, Robin Huw Bowen, Julie Murphy, Rag Foundation, Ffynnon, Ember and Crasdant. Discover a world of Welsh contemporary folk and new roots sounds in the land of St. David.

Join Fiona Ritchie at the Swannanoa Gathering in the mountains of North Carolina for a conversational, musical encounter with multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and singer Brian McNeill. The musician chats about his globetrotting years with Battlefield Band, his song and novel writing, and his projects uncovering Scottish connections in North America and Europe. His travels always inspire new music, and McNeill shares songs and tunes with the audience.

More than 40 years after Jimi Hendrix's death, the guitarist and singer's legacy continues to grow. His label recently released People, Hell and Angels, an album of 12 previously unreleased recordings that Hendrix was working on for a planned follow-up to 1968's Electric Ladyland.